Mon, 10 Mar 2008

For the past two years or so I've been wearing a badge designed by
Vivienne Westwood for the civil liberty organisation Liberty. On it is
written in friendly letters ‘I
am not a terrorist, please don't arrest me’. Liberty describes
the writing as ‘a child-like scrawl plea’. It obviously works as I have
not been arrested, or even stopped and searched, since I started
wearing this badge.

The badge helps people realise that we must all adopt a
rational attitude to the terrorist threats. We must promote measures
that really do enhance our security and not security
theatre measures that just inconvenience many innocents and
do not make us any safer.

I have travelled abroad many times while wearing it. While
waiting in security queues at airports I had the occasional positive response
from fellow passengers. At Stansted Airport, early February, I had the
first and so far only negative reaction to it. While I was waiting at the gate,
by the counter, for an Easyjet flight to Copenhagen, a Swissport staff
requested that I remove the badge which was pinned to my coat.

When I queried the staff why he was making such a request, he explained
his motivation was that it might upset some passengers. I pointed out
that the design of this badge is friendly and the message is
non-threatening. I found his request upsetting and that his motivation was
purely hypothetical as he hadn't heard from any concerned passenger. As
he insisted, I complied with his request. This exchange was short and
polite. At the bottom of the steps leading to the tarmac, he further
discussed this incident with a colleague travelling with me adding that
you have to be careful because some people are getting nervous about
these things.

On board of the plane, my colleague opened The Times, and the headline
on top of p.3, visible from several rows, was ‘Ryanair ordered to pay damages
to steel band ‘terrorists’ thrown off jet’. Oh, the irony.

As no passenger has ever complained about this badge and
I don't believe requesting me to remove it increases our security, back
in London I contacted the General Manager for Swissport at Stansted to
query the regulations covering Swissport staff's authority in requesting
passenger to remove badges and other items of clothing. He investigated
the incident and was very diligent in responding:

As all communications from passengers and
customers are important to us, we do investigate all complaints or
comments fully, and by the nature of our business this can take longer
than perhaps I might prefer.

I have now had the opportunity to investigate the circumstances
surrounding a member of Swissport staff asking you to remove your badge
before boarding a flight at Stansted Airport.

Our business as a major provider of airport ground handling services
around the world, works hard with our customer airlines and operators
at airports where we work, to ensure aviation continues to be a safe
and secure method of transport. The aviation industry is rightly well
regulated and all businesses co-operate with the Department for
Transport and the police services and security staff at the airports to
meet these regulations. Additionally, we try and ensure that passengers
are spared additional anxiety that they may feel as a result of
enhanced security processes at the airports.

The badge which I understand you were wearing bears the message "I am
not a terrorist. Please don't arrest me." Whilst it is unlikely that
anybody could take exception to such a friendly and, presumably
well-intentioned sentiment, our concerns were that the word "terrorist"
was clearly the most prominent and could be read from a distance, while
the context in which it was used could not.

Our request for the badge to be removed while you were preparing to
board the flight and during the flight itself, followed consultation
with the airline on which you were travelling, in particular the
Captain and senior cabin crew member. We did not intend to cause you
offence or to demonstrate support or rejection of the objectives of
Liberty, the cause which I gather the badge supports. It was merely to
spare other passengers any potential anxiety through the prominence of
the word "terrorist" in what many would consider a security sensitive
area. As part of legislative requirements, all airport staff are now
required to undergo a greater degree of security awareness training and
one of the supporting strains of this is to recognize and to act upon
the “out of the ordinary”.

I hope that this provides some explanation of the reason for the action
of our member of staff and I trust that this explains why you were
asked to remove the badge on this occasion.

It is reassuring that airport staff benefit from additional security
awareness training. This is exactly the type of measure that increases
our safety.

Unfortunately some of the explanations still left me confused. Neither
my colleague nor I noticed the Swissport staff having radio
communications with the Easyjet Captain. We may have missed that as
even though we were right by the counter we weren't paying particular
attention to this. However, during the request to remove my badge,
there was no mention of any consultation with the Captain. Sparing
potential anxiety is of course something I fully subscribe to, but how
come the word ‘terrorists’ when more prominent on a newspaper has not
the same potential to create anxiety in a security sensitive area?
Security measures, if efficient, should be applied consistently. Why
singling my badge out?

I sent a further email requesting clarifications. Here's the concluding
email:

Thank you for your further correspondence, and my apologies
for a tardy
reply. I have been dealing with a large redundancy issue which as I
hope you can appreciate is very time consuming.

Our dispatchers are responsible for ensuring the boarding process is
safe and timely and, as such, liaise with a number of personnel during
the time the aircraft is on the ground. It is
likely you would not have been aware of all of these discussions, some
of which will have been made by radio or telephone from our Operations
office, and there was no need for the dispatcher to explain them to you
at the time.

Whilst I can understand your frustration, I am satisfied that in the
light of the circumstances on the day as they were explained to me, the
dispatcher made the right decision in asking you to remove the badge in
question. The dispatcher was the senior member of our staff
on duty at the time and, as such, I support his decision and am
grateful to you for complying with it.

I have not received the Swissport's regulations covering
Swissport staff's authority in requesting passenger to remove badges
and other items of clothing